Easton bounced back yesterday from its upset East Penn Conference loss to Allen Wednesday by taking on the Nos. 2 and 4-ranked teams in District 1, North Penn and Downingtown, respectively, in a unique triangular meet at the 25th Street Gym, and coming away with a 49-14 rout of a decimated North Penn club and a 30-30 tie with Downingtown.

Downingtown made it a certainty that the District 1 rankings would be reversed, clobbering the Knights 46-18 to round out an afternoon of wrestling that might charitably be described as a "Pennsylvania Scramble," but more accurately as chaos.

The meet was staged in three segments, in which the weight classes were scrambled and each team used eight wrestlers per session. It was an interesting idea, but some bugs must be ironed out. Yesterday, it was almost impossible to keep track of what was going on, not only in terms of how the team scores were shaping up, but in terms of who was wrestling whom - and when.

At any rate, the key matchup turned out to be the Easton-Downingtown scrap. The Whippets edged ahead of the Rovers 12-10 after one round, getting a pin from Eric Sheron (in 5:48 over Mike Heimbach at 185) and a technical fall from Dave Lucerne (15-0 over Kurt Dech in 4:19 at 126). Meanhile, Easton got a technical fall from 145-pounder Dave Teklits (16-0 over Matt Horne in 5:24) and and 105-pounder Dave DiSora's 11-1 major over Kyle Nagle.

Downingtown swept the four head-to-head matchups in round two to take a seemingly safe 30-10 lead. Included were a forfeit win at heavyweight, 155- pounder Jay Zinni's 15-2 superior over Jim Solomon, 112-pounder Tony Caggiano's 15-7 major over Tony Rizzolino and Bill Null's narrow 5-4 nod over Trevor Purdy at 132.

But Easton had its big guns - unbeaten 138-pounder Mike DiSora, 167- pounder Tom Marchetti and 119-pounder Doug Hager - standing by for round three. That trio, with an assist from unheralded freshman 98-pounder Dave Moser, all came through with wins and the necessary 20 points to erase the entire deficit. Moser piled up a 15-0 technical fall over Jeff Prorok in 3:39; Hager decisioned Eric Marks 14-8, and Marchetti decked Bruce Wemett in 3:31. DiSora ran up a 24-10 superior over Sean Marks (a District 1, or Southeast Regional third-place finisher) and came within a whit of gaining either the technical fall or a disqualificatio n (the desperately backpedalling Marks was one stalling call away from a DQ) and the one extra team point that would've spelled victory for Easton.

The Rovers beat up on North Penn, whose lineup was literally torn apart by a combination of factors that eliminated five starters, several of whom had fancy credentials. The only blemishes for the Rovers were the forfeit at heavyweight, super freshman Chris Kwortnik's pin of Solomon in 1:43 and a 6-6 draw at 119 in which the Knights' Kevin Schmidt scored a reversal with one second left against Hager.

Rover coach Steve Powell was pleased about the way his kids rebounded from the loss to Allen and about the way they're shaping up for the coming tournament trail. "There are two weeks to go before districts," he said, "but those are two of the top teams in District 1, although I realize North Penn didn't have its regular lineup. But some of our guys beat kids with pretty good credentials, and they got a taste of wrestling twice in the same afternoon like they will at districts. And, for sure, it was a good bounce back from Allen."

How bad were North Penn's problems? Here's the litany of woe: Kwortnik's older brother, 145-pounder Jeff, who was also unbeaten and a defending regional champ, is academically ineligible and lost for the season. Regional champ Kevin Gottshall was left at home for what coach Ed Klavon called, "internal problems." Heavyweight Jim Smink was out because he just had four teeth pulled. And unbeaten (19-0) 105-pounder Dan Finacchio and John Kehler, ranked No. 1 in Southeastern Pennsylvania at 112, failed to make weight.

To make Klavon's day even more complete, 185-pounder Rob Kollar suffered a possible broken foot in his match with Downingtown's Sheron and had to default. Maybe "The Old Professor" will come out of retirement to record the Knights' miseries. You know: "Is that what's bothering you bunky? Well, lift your head up high and tell the world you'll never give up, never give up . . . that ship!"

"We didn't have our best team here," Klavon said in the year's top understatement. "Our loss to Quakertown (in which North Penn lost not only the Bux-Mont League championship but a lengthy winning streak) was taken very hard, and we're struggling to put the pieces together again. We're really in a down period mentally. Hopefully, we can get it patched together again for the postseason, but we're sure going to miss Jeff (Kwortnik)."